Team Chicago Academy-Bahia continued its U14 MRL Premier II Division league play with two convincing wins in Muscatine, Iowa. In the opening match against Vision Soccer Academy (VSA) (IA) on Saturday afternoon Bahia came away with a 5-1 win. The game started with Bahia moving the ball very well resulting in a ball played into Emma Crosswait who switched the point of attack into Paige Miller who drove in and finished her chance.

The second goal was a miss-played cross by Shannon Tagler who found the keeper off the line and the ball slipped in behind her. Bahia continued to find opportunities and midway through the first half Natalie Massa squared a ball across the top of the box where Zaira Solis placed a perfect ball over the GK to go up 3-0.

Coming out in the second half, play continued to be played in the opponent’s half of the field. The fourth goal was a result of Sarah Davies collecting a ball in midfield and beating one player and pushing the ball past another defender before hitting a great ball into the upper right corner. The final goal was off of a well taken corner by Sarah Davies who found Erin McCarthy on the near post who headed the ball past the keeper.

On Sunday morning Bahia faced Omaha FC Elite (NE) and continued to dominate with a 4-0 victory. In the first twenty minutes of the game Bahia played some great soccer and created several opportunities to score but were denied by some good goal keeping. Finally, Emma Crosswait scored what would be the game winner on a ball played back from Natalie Massa where she placed it over the goal keeper to go up 1-0. The second goal came as a result of a ball that made its way in behind the defense and through a great effort by Jeff (Jennifer) Pochyly to get on the end of it, she played the ball back across the box onto a charging Molly Grant who buried her shot past the keeper. The second half had similar possession and resulted in two great finishes by Natalie Massa and Sophia Majher, respectively to finish out the game with a 4-0 victory.

Bahia will end the MRL season with a game versus North Shore United out of Wisconsin to determine the winners of the division on October 11th. A tie or a win will earn Bahia promotion to the Spring Premier I Division.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro U15 continued its IYSA State Cup round-robin play with another convincing win. Cruzeiro faced FC-1 Elite on Sunday night and came away with a 5-0 victory.

Alyssa Bombacino led the way with 4 goals in the opening 20 minutes and an assist on the 5th and final goal in the 2nd half. GK Bailee Witt and her defense earned the 7th straight shutout.

Cruzeiro opened the scoring in the 8th minute when Jamie Goralski’s ball found Sarah Avery on the end-line, and she dribbled around a defender and squared it for Alyssa Bombacino to slot home. The 2nd goal came six minutes later when Kerry Abello found Jamie Goralski on the left wing, and she dribbled past 2 defenders and delivered a perfect, driven cross into Alyssa’s run in front of the goal. Two minutes later Jamie Goralski and Alyssa Bombacino linked up again in a carbon-copy of the second goal. And to close out the 1st half scoring Kerry Abello’s throw-in found Alyssa Bombacino on the edge of the 18-yard box where she turned her defender and walked in to calmly slot the ball home.

With 8 minutes left in the game Alyssa Bombacino played a ball into forward Madison Zaleski’s feet, and Madison made a great lay-off pass to Francesca Marconi who took a decisive touch inside and blew past her defender to score the 5th and final goal of the game.

With the win Cruzeiro just needs a tie in tonight’s 7:30pm home game against Crystal Lake to win its group, and advance to the IYSA State Cup Semi-final for the third year running.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro U15 opened its IYSA State Cup championship defense with an impressive 7-0 win over Rockford Raptors.

The game was a re-match of their Spring U14 IYSA State Cup Round-Robin contest, which ended with a tight 2-0 win for Cruzeiro, but this time around Cruzeiro quickly took care of business jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first six minutes of play. Kerry Abello opened the show when she got on the end of Riley O’Brien’s cross from a great Sarah Avery run up the right flank. Less than a minute later Jamie Goralski found Kerry Abello on the left-wing and she played a perfect ball into Alyssa Bombacino’s run down the middle. Alyssa calmly found the foot of the far post. And two minutes later Alyssa got her second of the game when she met at perfect Jamie Goralski cross at the near post and flicked it over the GK.

The 2nd half started much like the 1st as Cruzeiro grabbed a couple of quick goals. Kerry Abello played a perfect ball over the top into Emma Rydholm’s overlapping run, and Emma whipped in a cross that Riley O’Brien met at the back post. Less than a minute later GK Bailee Witt drove a great 50 yard ball into Riley O’Brien’s run down the right flank, and she squared it to Jamie Goralski who took a perfect first touch and then slotted it home for the 5-0 lead.

Jordan King made it 6-0 after a short corner, and Kerry Abello made it 7-0 final after a mazy run and driven shot to the far post. Bailee Witt got the shutout in goal. Up next for Cruzeiro is its 2nd State Cup round-robin game on Sunday night against FC-1 Elite.

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia continued its U16 MRL Premier I Division play this past weekend with two impressive victories in Grand Rapids, MI. Entering the weekend both opponents were undefeated and positioned at the top of the group.

On Saturday Brasilia faced TNT Dynamite and started off on a great note when Jasmine Ruiz nearly scored right off the kick-off. The GK was positioned well off her line and Jasmine took full advantage of her ability to strike a ball, just missing the upper 90. As the match continued Brasilia was in great form controlling the match and creating opportunities that finally paid off when Jasmine Ruiz played a great ball into Safia Hannin on the left side. Safia drove past two defenders going across the top of the box before slotting her ball to the lower left corner for a perfect finish. The second goal which proved to be the game winner started with Abby Severson playing a quick throw-in to Dominique Martinez. Dominique continued to switch the point of attack and found Abby Grzetic about 25 yards from goal. Abby made a great fist touch setting herself up before unleashing a perfect strike that found the upper 90. TNT scored against the run of play, but Brasilia was too strong and secured a deserved 2-1 win.

In Sunday’s game, Brasilia faced Alliance Academy who advanced to Nationals as the Region II champions this past summer. The game started off with possession primarily in the middle third of the field with each team searching for opportunities. Alliance opened the scoring in the first half to go up 1-0, but from there Brasilia turned it up a notch to go into the half up 3-1. The first goal came off a corner taken by Jasmine Ruiz that was driven near post. MaKenna Schoolman’s run to the near post opened up space, and she dummied the ball through for Emmerson Fuller to beat the keeper.

The game continued to be a great match going back and forth, but the second Brasilia goal proved to be a turning point in the match. The play started with a ball being played out wide on the left side to Jade Eriksen-Russo. Jade played a long diagonal ball into MaKenna Schoolman who was able to flick the ball into the run of a wide open Veda Tappin. Veda timed her run perfectly to stay onside and drove toward the goal to place her shot calmly past a keeper to the lower left corner. The final goal of the half came from Jasmine Ruiz winning the ball in the midfield and directing it to Alyssa Bombacino (Cruzeiro) who took care of the rest in providing the game-winner. Alyssa drove forward into space beating the back-line before placing her shot past the keeper.

Brasilia began the second half where it left off and continued to find openings in the opponents defensive third of the field. The final goal came when Maddie Lambert got the ball deep on the right flank. She cut inside and passed it to Alyssa Bombacino who found Jordan King (Cruzeiro) on top of the 18. Jordan was very composed on the ball and cut two players on the top of the box before beating the keeper to go up 4-1. However, the game was far from over with such a great opponent and they continued to fight back, but could only secure one more goal for the final 4-2 result. What a great way to end the weekend beating the Region II Champions. We would like to recognize the efforts of Madison Lockard, Nicole Mondi, Jade Eriksen-Russo, Emmerson Fuller, and Callie Vitro for defending as a unit against some very talented teams. Great job girls!

Team Chicago Academy-Internacional continued its impressive run of form with three more convincing MRL victories in Rockford this past weekend. Heading into the weekend with a 3-0-0 record Internacional faced Shattuck-St. Mary’s – an elite soccer boarding school in Minnesota in the Saturday morning game. While Shattuck was a very good soccer-playing side, it was not a match for Internacional and Quincy Kellett in particular. Quincy recorded a hat-trick in the opening 10 minutes of the contest to effectively secure the win for Internacional.

Inter opened with a spirited pressing game that Shattuck’s defenders really struggled with. Two of Quincy’s goals were almost carbon copies as Maddie Pokora found a streaking Keely Theobald in behind the Shattuck back-line, and she delivered a perfect pass for Quincy to find the back of the net. The third goal was all Quincy as she opportunistically chased down a soft back-pass and out-tackled the keeper followed by an easy tap-in. Inter created 3-4 other 100% chance before the interval, but could not convert.

The 2nd half was a lot more even, but with 12 minutes left Anna Tørsløv hit a shot from 25 yards out that beat the Shattuck keeper for the final score 4-0. Hannah Parrish got the shutout in goal.

In the 2nd game of the day Inter defeated previously undefeated Michigan Jaguars 5-1. Miranda Lambert opened the scoring 15 minutes in from Alena Sidwell and Maddie Pokora, and she doubled her tally 5 minutes later after a perfect give-and-go with Quincy Kellett at the top of the penalty box. MI Jags halved the Inter lead two minutes into the 2nd half, but then Kiley Czerwinski took over the game. First she scored off a corner combination with Anna Tørslev, then she beat 3 players before finding Grace Anderson who in turn found Alena Sidwell for the tap-in. And in the very last play of the game Kiley beat two defenders in driving to the goal, and finished perfectly with a hard, driven shot to the foot of the far post.

On Sunday Internacional had its best performance of the year in beating Missouri State Cup Champions Lou Fusz-Wipke 5-0. A very close 1st half ended on a positive note for Inter as Alena Sidwell notched the eventual game-winner with three minutes left in the half after Sarah Laws and Mallory Mollenhauer’s great work.

However, the 2nd half was a totally different story, as Inter finished off Lou Fusz with three goals in the opening 10 minutes. First Kiley Czerwinski drove towards the goal and was felled inside the box. Jori Romano stepped up and doubled the lead. The next goal was an absolute perfect “training ground” exercise come to fruition. Alena Sidwell played Kiley in behind on the wing, and Kiley took one big touch out in front, before she drove across the defender along the end-line and delivered a perfect ball to the top of the 6 for Alena to smash home. Kudos to Quincy Kellett and Miranda Lambert, too, as they made strong runs to the near and far posts to occupy the Lou Fusz defenders and keeper. Miranda Lambert then made it 4-0 and 5-0. First from Alena Sidwell and then on a header off a perfect, driven Kiley Czerwinski corner. Hannah Parrish got the shutout in goal and the back-line of Maddie Pokora, Jori Romano, Emily Dickens, and Tori Christiansen was stellar, too.

Internacional now needs two wins in its remaining three games to clinch the MRL Premier title. Up next are two games in Muscatine, Iowa on September 27th and 28th.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro also continued its winning ways in MRL Premier play with a 3-0 over Michigan Rush in Rockford. The goals took awhile to come, but when they did they came in quick succession in the final 18 minutes of the game. First Kerry Abello hammered the ball into the top-corner from 22 yards out, and then Jordan King drove a ball across the MI Rush goal for Kerry to finish at the back post. Finally, Jamie Goralski struck another perfect shot to the upper-90 for the final 3-0 score. Bailee Witt got the shutout in goal.

Next up for Cruzeiro is a State Cup game v. Rockford this Saturday at 1pm at PlayUSA, and the next MRL games are October 4th and 5th in Overland Park, Kansas.

Team Chicago Academy-Bahia continued its U14 MRL Premier II Division play. In their first match against Lou Fusz M. Elam (MO) on Saturday afternoon the game ended in a tie at 2-2. Early on in the first half Bahia scored a goal against the run of play to take a 1-0 lead going into the half. The play started with Natalie Massa collecting the ball in the midfield. Driving forward she played a ball into Emma Crosswait who played it back to Natalie who then played a great ball over the top for Emma to run on to and calmly finish. The second half was a different story, Bahia opened up with a great 20 minutes that resulted in the second goal but should have been four. The second goal looked just like the training ground and started with Jeff (Jennifer) Pochyly playing a ball into Emma Crosswait. Emma drove end-line to serve a perfect ball onto the running path of Sophia Majher who buried her chance past the keeper. Unfortunately Bahia could not hold on to their lead and gave up two late goals to earn a tie.

In Sunday’s game, Bahia faced J.B. Marine Rasch (MO) which was a rematch from the Spring when the teams played to a 1-1 draw. This time Bahia played well in all phases and came away with a convincing 5-0 win. The game winner came off a great ball played out of the back by Carolena Lund that sprung Emma Crosswait in behind the opponents defense. Emma collected the ball on the right side and drove to goal releasing a fantastic shot to the upper left corner where the GK had no chance. Emma continued to have an impact and played a ball back to Zaira Solis who collected the ball and buried her shot past the keeper for the second goal. The next two goals were credited to Paige Miller who scored by driving in from the right side. The first started with Allison Anderson switching the point of attack and finding Paige in the offensive third where she beat three players before unleashing her shot hitting the inside of the far post. The second was a defensive mishap that Paige opportunistically took advantage of by driving inside before placing her shot over the keeper. The final goal was scored with a nicely weighted ball played into Molly Grant from Zaira Solis. Molly finished her chance to round out the scoring and solidified a great match for Bahia.